Mets’ Juan Lagares Soars, Attaining New Heights

The Mets’ Juan Lagares, at Citi Field in August, displayed the style that led to an award as best defensive center fielder.CreditNoah K. Murray/USA TODAY Sports, via Reuters

By Tim Rohan

Oct. 31, 2014

Sometimes Juan Lagares plays so shallow in center field for the Mets that he looks as if he is hoping to bait the batter into swinging too hard in an effort to hit the ball over his head. But as opponents have learned over the past two seasons, Lagares has the speed and instincts to get to almost any ball hit in the air. If you do hit the ball deep, he will probably catch up to it. And if you try to tag up and advance a base after he runs the ball down, he might just throw you out.

Lagares, 25, has been a major leaguer for only two seasons, but by one significant measurement he is already the best defensive center fielder in baseball. That recognition was bestowed on him this week by the Fielding Bible awards, which cite one player, American and National Leagues combined, as the best at each position. Lagares won in center field, receiving 11 of the 12 first-place votes.

The longstanding and more traditional Gold Glove awards will be handed out next week, and it is possible that Lagares will be honored again, but his time as the best center fielder in his league only.

In any case, one award or maybe two, it is clear that Lagares is emerging as a key figure on the Mets as they try to finally become a contender again after a half-dozen consecutive losing seasons. He is talented and exciting to watch, and while his bat may never match his glove, he hit.280 last season and began to display some aggressiveness on the basepaths as well, with 13 steals.

If he keeps hitting, and running, he could be the Mets’ everyday leadoff hitter next season and someone who will help shape the team’s identity for years to come.

For now, he has a Fielding Bible award. John Dewan and Bill James, two of the figures at the forefront of baseball analytics, developed the awards less than a decade ago as an alternative to the Gold Glove balloting, which is conducted by managers and coaches and by definition is less analytics-driven. It is also more influenced, perhaps, by players’ reputations, although it now includes a sabermetric component that accounts for about 25 percent of its vote.

In contrast, the Fielding Bible votes are, in large part, cast by people who write about baseball and are intimately familiar with the growing use of analytics. They do not have scheduled meetings or any strict guidelines. Instead, the voters get a packet of statistics from Dewan’s company, Baseball Info Solutions, with the expectation that they will keep an open mind.

Dewan has spent an impressive amount of his professional life analyzing defensive statistics in baseball. He co-founded Stats Inc. and created the Ultimate Zone Rating system. Then, after he co-founded Baseball Info Solutions, he created what he felt was a more comprehensible defensive-measurement system, Defensive Runs Saved.

The book he wrote on that system was, naturally enough, titled “The Fielding Bible.”

Although he wasn’t exactly bragging, Dewan offered this anecdote on Friday as testimony to his credentials. In the bottom of the fifth inning in Game 7 of the World Series on Wednesday night, Madison Bumgarner was on the mound for San Francisco, pitching on just two days of rest. The Kansas City Royals had the tying run on second, with one out, and Nori Aoki at the plate.

It was left-hander against left-hander, and Aoki hit a line drive down the left-field line that briefly looked to be a game-tying hit. But Juan Perez, the Giants’ left fielder, was positioned perfectly and snagged it. The Giants, Dewan noted, are one of many teams using his company’s defensive-positioning software, which, he said, “pretty much told them where to position Perez against Aoki.”

Dewan is one of the Fielding Bible voters. He said that in deciding whom to vote for, he often relies on his Defensive Runs Saved statistic, which computes the number of runs a player saves compared with an average defender at his position. It measures details like a catcher’s ability to frame a pitch, a first baseman’s ability to scoop a ball in the dirt, a third baseman’s ability to field a bunt.

According to Dewan’s data, Lagares saved 28 runs this year, 13 more than any other center fielder. Dewan added that Lagares saved just about the same number of runs — 26 — in 2013. In other words, he is not a fluke. “You talk about his arm, how good it is,” Dewan said. “But it’s his range, how much ground he covers.”

Another voter, Joe Posnanski, a national columnist for NBC Sports, said he often watched games from around the league while at home.

Flipping through the channels, he would observe Lagares making a remarkable defensive play. “He’s the complete package,” Posnanski said. “He’s one of those guys where the numbers are really, really great, and then you watch the player and you’re like, ‘Yeah, the numbers are right.’ ”

And they may only get better for a player quickly coming into his own.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D7 of the New York edition with the headline: Mets’ Lagares Soars to New Heights. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe